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City requires Facebook passwords from job applicants
Bozeman Daily Chronicle ^ | 6/18/09

Posted on 06/19/2009 10:25:18 AM PDT by FromLori

If you’re planning to apply for a job with the city of Bozeman, prepare to clean up your Facebook page.

As part of routine background checks, the city asks job applicants to provide their usernames and passwords for their social-networking sites. And it has been doing it for years, city officials said.

“Please list any and all, current personal or business Web sites, Web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.,” states a city waiver form applicants are asked to sign. Three lines are provided for applicants to list log-in information for each site.

City officials maintain the policy is necessary to ensure employees’ integrity and protect the public’s trust, but the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana says they may be crossing the line.

“I would guess that they’re on some shaky legal ground with this and we would certainly welcome (the opportunity) to look at something specific from somebody who’s impacted,” Executive Director Scott Crichton said Thursday.

Advertisement He said Bozeman’s policy is unprecedented as far as he knows. ACLU’s legal counsel in Washington, D.C., had never heard of another city asking for log-in information for social networking sites as part of a job application.

“It’s like saying, ‘Let me look through your e-mails,’” Crichton said.

“The city certainly has access to publicly accessible information, but it gets pretty questionable when they start asking for password-protected things that are created to create privacy for communications between your friends and family,” he said. “That seems to be going too far.”

City Manager Chris Kukulski said the city checks the sites in order to ensure that employees who might be handling taxpayer money, working with children in recreation programs or entering residents’ homes as an emergency services worker are reputable and honest.

“It’s just one of the tools, like all the other tools, that we’ve used to do a thorough background check,” Kukulski said.

The city also checks credit reports, criminal history, references and past employment, among other things.

“We have to do some due diligence,” Kukulski said.

News of the city’s policy went ‘round the world via the Internet Thursday, triggering outrage and prompting comments by media outlets and bloggers. Celebrity gossip columnist Perez Hilton even weighed in on the news.

“Big Brother much?” he wrote. “We’ve heard of employers looking up potential employees on Facebook, but this seems a bit extreme.”

The Guardian, a major daily newspaper in London, named the city of Bozeman its “civil liberties villain of the week” on its Web site.

City Attorney Greg Sullivan said in light of concerns being expressed by the public, officials are looking at ways to alter the policy so that they might view an applicant’s online information without asking for log-in codes.

“We’ve already begun that discussion,” Sullivan said Thursday afternoon.

For example, city officials said they could ask applicants to log into their Facebook page and show it to a city official during the application process, or add the city as a “friend” so the officials could view the applicant’s page.

Bozeman has checked job applicants’ social networking sites for about three years, said Human Resources Director Pattie Berg. HR staff or supervisors in the department in which the job is sought are charged with reviewing the sites.

However, Bozeman’s city commissioners are exempt from the policy because elected officials aren’t subjected to the same background check as city employees, said Chuck Winn, assistant city manager.

City administrators first enacted the policy for police and fire department job applicants, said Mark Lachapelle, deputy chief of investigations for the Bozeman Police Department. The policy wasn’t presented to the Bozeman City Commission because the commission typically isn’t charged with setting personnel policies.

Winn said that in his former position as fire chief, he was sometimes responsible for looking at potential firefighters’ social-networking sites. He said he primarily looked for illegal activity.

“It’s not about taste or anything,” Winn said.

In at least one instance, an applicant’s social-networking site figured into disqualifying the person for a job, Winn and Lachapelle said. Lachapelle said information from the site was one of several components that contributed to the decision. He declined to discuss the case more specifically, citing privacy concerns.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; US: Montana
KEYWORDS: bigbrother; bozeman; economy; esnooping; facebook; jobs; passwordsplease; privacyrights
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1 posted on 06/19/2009 10:25:20 AM PDT by FromLori
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To: FromLori

I wouldn’t work for that city. Talk about violations of privacy. I wonder if they want to know what radio/television programs their employees listen to as well.


2 posted on 06/19/2009 10:27:03 AM PDT by Paved Paradise
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To: FromLori

Why would anyone say that they have a Facebook?

I have a Facebook account and a MySpace. MySpace is for family only (and Steven Crowder lol!) No one sees it.


3 posted on 06/19/2009 10:27:28 AM PDT by netmilsmom (Psalm 109:8 - Let his days be few; and let another take his office)
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To: FromLori

There is zero link between my Internet activities and my RL name.

I think anyone with a Facebook account with RL info (much less those who use a RL FR name) are nuts.


4 posted on 06/19/2009 10:27:40 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Communism comes to America: 1/20/2009. Keep your powder dry, folks. Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: freedumb2003

However, there are reasons I don’t access FR from work, though I can do other conservative sites such as National Review (at lunch). I suspect it would cause me to get a close look from the Federal security folks.


5 posted on 06/19/2009 10:29:58 AM PDT by GAB-1955 (I write books, love my wife, serve my nation, and believe in the Resurrection.)
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To: FromLori

Massive violation of privacy. It would be fun to apply and list a stunning amount of porn and just plain ole’ whacko websites with some really red flag names. Just plain fun. :-D. Could be the basis for a funny skit as well.


6 posted on 06/19/2009 10:30:14 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: FromLori

I suppose that “1%er” tat on the shoulder or “Juicy” tramp stamp is reason for disqualification, too?


7 posted on 06/19/2009 10:30:15 AM PDT by randog (Tap into America!)
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To: GAB-1955

>>I suspect it would cause me to get a close look from the Federal security folks.<<

Especially these days wirth the fascists we handed the office to.


8 posted on 06/19/2009 10:33:22 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Communism comes to America: 1/20/2009. Keep your powder dry, folks. Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: GOP Poet
Massive violation of privacy. It would be fun to apply and list a stunning amount of porn and just plain ole’ whacko websites with some really red flag names. Just plain fun. :-D.

LOL - you'd probably be offered a high-ranking position with very good pay.

9 posted on 06/19/2009 10:34:55 AM PDT by Allegra ( Stand up for FREEDOM, Iran.)
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To: FromLori

Well within the town’s bailiwick.

If you don’t want to hand over the info, don’t apply.

Really no big deal; not much different than testing for alcohol, tobacco and various drugs.

And if you don’t have anything to hide, well, what’s the beef?


10 posted on 06/19/2009 10:39:18 AM PDT by swarthyguy ("We may be crazy in Pakistan, but not completely out of our minds," ISI Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha)
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To: FromLori
As part of routine background checks, the city asks job applicants to provide their usernames and passwords for their social-networking sites. And it has been doing it for years, city officials said.

And yet our nation's president was not vetted. No birth certificate. No medical records. Did he ever release his taxes? No college papers. No passport travel records (what nationality did he travel into Pakistan under?).

11 posted on 06/19/2009 10:44:42 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (There is no truth in the Pravda Media.)
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To: FromLori

Kind of seems like a no-brainer to me. I mean, I would NEVER list any of that on an application. How are they gonna find out? Unless you are stupid enough to be using the sites while at work on a work computer.


12 posted on 06/19/2009 10:44:49 AM PDT by EggsAckley (There's an Ethiopian in the fuel supply. W.C. Fields)
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To: FromLori; Revolting cat!; Slings and Arrows
In at least one instance, an applicant’s social-networking site figured into disqualifying the person for a job, Winn and Lachapelle said. Lachapelle said information from the site was one of several components that contributed to the decision. He declined to discuss the case more specifically, citing privacy concerns.

How many applicants' privacy concerns did he have to violate to come up with ONE instance to justify the whole program?

"I found ONE but I can't tell you about it..."

A**---e.

13 posted on 06/19/2009 10:50:09 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (There is no truth in the Pravda Media.)
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To: FromLori

What keeps people from providing that info, and then changing their password?


14 posted on 06/19/2009 10:59:34 AM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to...otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: EggsAckley

Well you’re name is on the application, so they can search he site for people with that name, and usually the location and a picture show up in the hit list. So it’s pretty easy to tell if you have an account. I’d let them no I have the account but no way I’d give them my password, just on general principles.


15 posted on 06/19/2009 11:02:28 AM PDT by razorboy
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To: FromLori
“Please list any and all, current personal or business Web sites, Web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.,”

Easy answer- N/A

16 posted on 06/19/2009 11:03:30 AM PDT by TADSLOS
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To: FromLori

I’m waiting for the first nutso guy to say he has an id on goat**.*x (actual letters removed so no one looks the site up)

don’t even try to look it up...wiki it instead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse


17 posted on 06/19/2009 11:05:09 AM PDT by struggle ((The struggle continues))
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To: struggle

You shouldn’t do that.

That is a real nasty.

In this case, ignorance is better.


18 posted on 06/19/2009 11:07:50 AM PDT by swarthyguy ("We may be crazy in Pakistan, but not completely out of our minds," ISI Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha)
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To: FromLori
“I would guess that they’re on some shaky legal ground with this . . . "

No sh!#

“It’s like saying, ‘Let me look through your e-mails” Crichton said.

It's also like saying "Let me have all your passwords, so some sketchy person in my organization can use them post things things that will look like you posted them." The liability that Bozeman is assuming with this scheme is mind-bogglingly huge, and any court in the country would throw out the accompanying waiver like a used Kleenex.

Also, I suspect that at least some of these sites require people who register to "Accept" a terms of service agreement which includes agreeing to not knowingly give your password to anyone else. That would put Bozeman in the position of inducing people to breach their contracts with the website operators.

19 posted on 06/19/2009 11:15:45 AM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: FromLori
“We have to do some due diligence,” Kukulski said.

Find another way kook...
20 posted on 06/19/2009 11:20:01 AM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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